Duck Lovers Cry Foul Over Plan To Destroy 40 Feathered Friends

August 30, 1995|By Denise Linke, Special to the Tribune.

A date with the executioner has been put on hold for ducks at Usher Park in Itasca.

Thanks to the efforts of residents protesting a plan to kill about 40 domestic ducks that make the pond their home, new owners have been found for 10 birds. And the friends of the ducks are confident they will be able to relocate the entire flock by the fall, said resident Pat Crick.

FOR THE RECORD - Additional material published Sept. 6, 1995:Corrections and clarifications.In some editions Aug. 30, it was reported that Spring Brook Nature Center is in Usher Park in Itasca. It is not part of the park. The Tribune regrets the error.

"We're finding a lot of places that can take two or four, but not all of them," she said. "If we just keep on the phone like we have been, we'll find homes for them all."

Itasca officials decided to remove the large domesticated ducks, descendents of one breeding pair of pets abandoned at the pond along Irving Park Road two years ago, because they are beginning to pose a health hazard, said village naturalist Fred Maier.

No one wants to get rid of the wild mallards that have lived in the pond for decades, he added.

"Our big worry is that if we don't do something soon, we'll have more than 100 domesticated ducks in the pond next spring, and that's way too many for the pond to support," Maier explained. "That many ducks could cause a botulism outbreak that would affect virtually all wildlife in the pond."

The domesticated ducks are bigger than the mallards and are poor fliers, he said.

In a report to Village President Shirley Ketter, Maier said the staff would have to kill the ducks because calls to area zoos and wildlife preserves found no takers for them. The killings, which had not yet been scheduled, would have been done by injection or with gas.

"If we have to do it, we will definitely do it in as humane a way as our resources allow," Maier said.

But word of the report leaked out late last week, and residents leaped into action to halt the executions.

"I heard a rumor about it, and I thought it couldn't be true, so I called (Spring Brook) nature center and found out it was," said Darlene Krajewski. "I was just stunned."

The nature center is located in Usher Park.

About a dozen people came to the nature center's 15th anniversary celebration Sunday and distributed save-the-duck fliers, Maier said. Others bombarded Ketter with telephone calls, protesting the plans for a murder most fowl.

"I was called almost continuously from 6 a.m. until 10 p.m. Saturday, with more on Sunday," Ketter said. "I'm still getting calls from people calling me a murderer."

Because of the number of protests, Ketter agreed to put the ducks' fate on the Sept. 5 Village Board agenda. She said she will open the meeting at 7:30 p.m. to public comment on the issue.

"If these people can find an alternative to euthanasia, we would welcome it," she said. "But taking no action at all could result in killing all the fowl population in the pond. I'm responsible for all the wildlife at Usher Park, not just the ducks."

Ketter said she had hoped to have the ducks killed quietly to avoid traumatizing children. "I assumed adults would understand the necessity (of removing health hazards from the pond)," she explained.

Protesters, however, said she and other officials tried to keep their plans secret to avoid resistance from residents who would intervene on behalf of what they say are longtime symbols.

"The main thing we were upset about is that it was going to be done quietly, in secret," Krajewski said. "One of the things that upset me most is that the mayor referred to the domestic ducks as vermin that had to be removed.

"These ducks are our pets. I don't believe they've only been in the pond two years, because there have always been pure white ducks in the pond and the creek," she added. "Ever since my kids were babies, we have gone down and watched the ducks. They're really cute."

"Emotions always run high when animals are involved, and these aren't just any animals," resident Crick said. "These are animals that people come out every night to see. They're symbols of Itasca, just like the swans."